Armand Isard
Armand Isard was a noted male Human who served the Galactic Empire as the Director of Imperial Intelligence for several years. From humble beginnings as an agent within the Senate Bureau of Intelligence, Isard worked his way up through the ranks, doing sterling work for the Empire, and he became a close ally of Senator Cosimo Palpatine I, the Empire's soon-to-be leader. During the Second Clone War, Isard aided the Imperial war effort as a member of the Security and Intelligence Council, a war council made up of the Empire's most trusted advisors. Following the formation of the Empire in 31 BBY, Isard continued to serve Palpatine as a member of Imperial Intelligence, eventually becoming its Director. He worked closely with the Inquisitorius to hunt down the survivors of the failed Jedi Rebellion in c. 29 BBY. On several occasions, Isard's men were able to pinpoint the location of Jedi for the benefit of Inquisitor Dooku and later Darth Vader. Simultaneously, Isard began grooming his daughter, Ysanne, for a career as a field operative within Imperial Intelligence. Years later, after the outbreak of a civil war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Isard acted to crush Rebel cells, and he also dispatched the Imperial agent Jahan Cross to investigate a clandestine project in the Corporate Sector. As Ysanne grew, she became more and more capable in her role as an intelligence operative, and, naturally, Armand felt threatened. He sent her on a mission to the planet Darkknell to recover some stolen Imperial plans as a means of getting rid of her, convinced that she would be unsuccessful and would be executed for her failure. Much to Armand's surprise, she deduced his motives for sending her on the assignment and had Armand framed for treason. Ysanne was rumored to have personally executed him, ending his decades-long career as Director of Intelligence and launching her own. Biography Early life Armand Isard was born on Coruscant during the latter years of the Galactic Republic around 54 BBY. Isard also had a brother, but his sibling was killed in 34 BBY during the First Clone War. Isard went on to work for the Republic's Office of Analysis, in which he rose through the ranks. By the time of the First Clone War, Isard had joined the Senate Bureau of Intelligence and become an associate of Senator Cosimo Palpatine II. Isard had to work overtime to deal with the constant menaces that endangered the Republic. Fear was rife throughout the populace of the Republic's capital, Coruscant, due to the threat of war which caused people to panic at any given thing. There was also the threat of lone operators: those not affiliated with the Alliance of Independent Systems, but still capitalizing on the crisis to do personal damage to the Republic. Imperial service Several days after the conclusion of the war, President Cosimo Palpatine I declared the Galactic Republic obsolete and the Galactic Empire its successor, with himself at its head as Emperor. In the wake of the changes, Armand Isard was appointed to the SBI's successor, Imperial Intelligence. As a part of the Imperialization process, Isard arrested a batch of Imperial Senators suspected of treason. By 28 BBY, Isard married a woman named Katyenka and became a father to the girl Ysanne Isard. As the Empire continued to forge ahead, Imperial Knight Dooku founded the Inquisitorius, which would be a Force-sensitive branch of Intelligence. Isard found it difficult to work with one particular Inquisitor, Antinnis Tremayne, who was hunting for a Jedi fugitive called Jodd Sonta. The parameters that Tremayne set for Isard's staff to pinpoint Sonta's location were far too broad, preventing any kind of specific localization. Dooku, at Tremayne's urging, requested that Isard devote more resources to the Inquisitor's mission of hunting the Jedi, but that did not help matters. Eventually, Tremayne was able to link Sonta to the hospitalized Omwati Kodo Finn, yet he failed to apprehend the criminal.Evasive Action: Prey'' In the aftermath of the Alderaanian Crisis, Isard had reached the rank of Director of Imperial Intelligence a position he would hold until his death. Shortly after attaining his new rank, he had a Crisis Branch created for the ISB, an act that had not been seen since 60 years prior. During this reform, Isard fired the 32 Mid Rim subdirectors of ISB, claiming that they were "rife with corruption". But Isard's detractors claimed that these reforms were only giving more power to Emperor Palpatine—an assumption that would later prove to be correct. To further the suppression of anti-Imperial feeling, Isard had the Sluis sector HoloNet node shut down, as a response to the rallies in the area in support of the Nebula Front, a resistance group opposing the de facto corporate monopolies and government control exercised by the Empire. Isard told HoloNet Regional: "This isn't about freedom of speech. The HoloNet is an Imperial asset, and it appears the Sluis sector has opted to leave the Empire. It's well within our jurisdiction to shut down their network during this crisis." On the world Oznar, Isard witnessed a change in the state of mind in the citizenry under the Empire. Twenty-six Imperial enforcement officers had been deployed on the planet, and they received an influx of reports on criminal and anti-Imperial activity. Ninety percent of the reports came from regular citizens who were branding their neighbors and denouncing them. Isard observed that the populace were not being stifled under Imperial rule—instead, they were taking the opportunity to settle scores or make a demonstration of their fealty to the Emperor. The director also guessed that these citizens would deny that they had ever done so. He later received a report from Section Controller J506 H.F. Marigand, on the various Imperial Army trooper desertions that the Empire had endured, as well as several other issues. The controller issued a series of resolutions to Isard, suggesting that the director follow them to help avert future disaster. In 17 BBY, Isard, alongside Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and Imperial Advisor Janus Greejatus, accompanied Palpatine in his throne room as the Emperor questioned Darth Vader and the stormtrooper Hock Malsuun about the events of the Shrouded Offensive, an Imperial military operation that ended in what was at the time the biggest military disasters the Empire had ever known. At some point, Isard established a secret headquarters for himself inside the Lusankya, an underground Imperial prison located within the depths of the Coruscant cityscape. The time of Cosimo II Around 10 BBY, things changed across the Empire in the aftermath of Cosimo I's death. A new Emperor was soon chosen— his eldest son— Cosimo Palpatine II. Though many members of the Imperial "old guard" were removed as a result of the new Emperor's reforms— in favor of others more loyal to him— Isard would remain in power and became particularly adept at hunting down Palpatine's enemies and bringing them to justice. He would constantly ferret out cells of alleged Alliance to Restore the Republic sympathizers, even if they had no ties to the Alliance whatsoever. During this time, he trained his daughter, Ysanne, to be a field agent, much as he had been in his youth. She was allowed to sit in on Intel, Imperial Security Bureau, and even Inquisitorius conferences. In 3 BBY, the Imperial Intelligence agent Jahan Cross killed the Imperial officer Milosh Muhrlein after learning that Muhrlein had been stealing credits from the Empire. Subsequently, Cross met with Isard inside the director's office deep within the Imperial Palace—the seat of the Empire on Coruscant—to report on his encounter with Muhrlein. Isard berated the agent, because Murhlein was from an influential family and had had friends in the Imperial Court, but Cross revealed that Murhlein had been involved with the company Rossum Droidworks in relation to a clandestine project that was referenced by the name "Iron Eclipse." Isard authorized Cross to travel to the Corporate Sector, where Rossum Droidworks was based, to investigate the project, and he ordered the agent to contact Blains Vorlin, the Empire's ambassador to the Corporate Sector. Cross journeyed to the world Etti IV to meet with Vorlin and the agent was framed by the businessman Iaclyn Stark for the murder of Stark's Nautolan step-mother, Dah'lis, which forced Cross to go on the run from the local security force. Isard was informed of the Nautolan's death, but he was unable to intervene on Cross' behalf because Blains Vorlin believed that the agent was guilty. Cross later contacted Isard via a comlink and awoke the Intelligence director, who had been asleep in bed. The agent explained his situation to Isard and informed the director that Vorlin's aide Emesh Nar had colluded with the Stark family in relation to Iron Eclipse. Isard then became incensed when Cross revealed that the Imperial Intelligence Human replica droid IN-GA 44 had been taken captive by Iaclyn Stark. Despite his displeasure, Isard sanctioned the agent to scrutinize the Eclipse resort on the world Reltooine, which Cross believed was connected to the Iron Eclipse project. Cross discovered that Iron Eclipse was a virus developed by the Stark patriarch Iaco to take control of all of the droids in the galaxy, and the agent shut down the operation. Iaclyn's sister, Elli Stark, agreed to vouch for Cross' innocence, which enabled Isard to have the criminal charges against Cross dropped by the Etti IV authorities.Agent of the Empire A short time later, Cross assassinated the noble Count Adan Dooku, the nephew of the influential Imperial Inquisitor, at the behest of Imperial Intelligence, on the planet Alderaan. Afterward, Cross returned to Coruscant and convened with Isard in the director's office inside the Imperial Palace, and Isard tasked the agent with ensuring that the Count Rodas Borgin of House Borgin, one of the five Great Houses of Dooku's homeworld Serenno, be appointed as the regent of Dooku's son, Bron. Isard also berated Cross after the operative inquired whether it had been necessary to kill Count Dooku, stating Cross' job was to accept orders unquestionably. Cross journeyed to Serenno and thwarted an attempt by Borgin to kidnap the young Count, so Borgin requested that the agent be recalled from the world. A fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers was dispatched to Serenno to ensure that Borgin be installed as regent, and Isard thereafter contacted Cross and ordered him to leave with the fleet when the task force arrived.Agent of the Empire—Hard Targets, Part 3 The Darkknell operation Despite the pride that he felt towards Ysanne, Armand feared that she would become his rival for the leadership of Imperial Intelligence. After the plans to the Empire's top-secret Death Star project were stolen in 0 BBY, Armand sought to use the theft as an opportunity to eliminate his daughter by dispatching Ysanne to the planet Darkknell to recover the missing blueprints, in the hope that she would be unsuccessful at reclaiming the plans and would be executed for her failure. He summoned Ysanne to his office to provide her a briefing for the mission and ordered that all of Darkknell's spaceports be interdicted, and his daughter departed to commence her assignment. As Armand had hoped, Ysanne was unable to recover the plans. However, she deduced why her father had sent her on the mission, and she plotted revenge. Ysanne implicated Armand as having been involved in the original theft of the plans and she concocted a story whereby Armand had sought to have her killed, then to use her death as a justification to enable him to join the Rebel Alliance. She claimed that he then planned to reveal secret Imperial information to the Alliance, to allow them to overthrow Palpatine and to put Armand in position to claim the throne for himself. Ysanne also implicated her father as having been behind the bombing of the Treitamma Political Center on the planet Anchoron, which had claimed the lives of the family of the Rebel leader Garm Bel Iblis, purportedly to push Bel Iblis further into the Alliance, by eliminating Iblis' pro-Imperial wife. Ysanne revealed her "findings" to Palpatine, while Armand—who was unaware of his daughter's contact with the Emperor—also spoke with Palpatine, to request that Ysanne's life be spared for her failure on the mission. Armand subsequently met with Ysanne to debrief her on the results of her mission, and she revealed to him the aspersions against him that she had made to Palpatine. Several of the Emperor's Royal Guardsmen escorted Armand away for an audience with Cosimo II regarding Armand's fate, and he was subsequently arrested by Imperial Security and executed within the hour. According to an unverified rumor, it was Ysanne herself who fired the shot that killed him.X-Wing: Rogue Squadron Legacy Isard was eventually replaced by his daughter as the Director of Intelligence, and she went on to have a successful career, eventually becoming the leader of the Empire after the death of Cosimo II during the Seizure of Coruscant. At some point, Ysanne named a Coruscant prison the "Armand Isard Correctional Facility", after her father, out of a malevolent sense of humor. Following the loss of Coruscant, the prison continued to operate under the same name and was still in use by the New Republic during 44 ABY.Fate of the Jedi: Conviction Personality and traits Isard believed that someone strong and ruthless was needed to lead the Empire, and he was staunchly loyal to both Cosimo I and Cosimo II's rule as Galactic Emperor. He did not display any kind of instability, nor did he show any kind of callous indifference towards the sentients of the galaxy until the Darkknell operation, where he effectively sentenced his own daughter to death. When Ysanne turned the tables on him shortly after the Darkknell operation, Isard did not plead for clemency, but instead displayed a tinge of pride for his treacherous daughter. He liked to keep both his allies and his enemies off-balance, and he also valued competence in those who served him. Cosimo I knew Isard as a man who knew much, but talked little. He was thought by some to have an inhuman gaze. Isard was fair-skinned, with blue eyes and black-colored hair that had a white stripe running through it. Appearances }} Notes and references Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Imperial Intelligence Directors Category:Isard family Category:Inhabitants of Coruscant Category:Bureaucrats of the Galactic Empire Category:Imperial Intelligence personnel of the Galactic Empire